Research Findings: This review focuses on the use of robotics in early childhood education (ECE), addressing gender and socioeconomic status (SES) differences in young children's robotics learning. This review systematically evaluates, synthesizes, and displays the research designs, robotic toys, data collection instruments, research methods, and…

Research Findings: This study investigated children's feelings about school and their adaptation to primary school after leaving kindergarten. Altogether, 28,334 Chinese children (ages 6-8 years) were sampled and surveyed online. The descriptive statistic, latent class analysis (LCA) approach, and logistic regression analysis indicated that: (1)…

Research Findings: The present study focused on the affective quality of dyadic relationships between teachers and young children in China and the Netherlands. We examined whether there were cross-cultural differences in teachers' and children's relationship perceptions, as well as the degree to which teachers and children agreed on their…

Research Findings: Previous studies have found that a growth mind-set was associated with optimal learning and well-being outcomes. However, much of this research has been conducted among adolescents and young adults. Relatively little is known as to whether these associations also apply to young children. The present study aimed to examine…

Research Findings: This study aims to examine the latent profiles of parents' mediation and their predictors, as well as links between different profiles and children's problematic media use. A total of 1415 children aged 3-6 years (47.8% boys) and their paired parents were recruited in Shanghai, China and surveyed demographic information,…

Research Findings: Children are increasingly using touchscreen technologies at home, which has become a recurring feature within their classroom too. Research has investigated the potential effect of using computer-based tests to assess pupils' performance rather than traditional paper tests. An agreement has still not been formed about the impact…

Research Findings: Anthropomorphized animal characters have been associated with negative influences on educational outcomes for young children, for example story comprehension and prosocial learning from moral tales. In this study we investigate how character realism and moral theme influence young children's recall of the story content. Retells…

Research Findings: The present study examines the unique and joint effects of individual teacher-child relationships and overall quality of teacher-child interactions on the motivation of 2,745 kindergarten children (51% girls; ages 5--6) from an ethnically and linguistically diverse county. Teachers reported the closeness and conflict in their…

Research Findings: Two hundred and sixty-seven Chilean children from grades 1-3, their fathers and their mothers completed measures of implicit and explicit math-related beliefs (math-gender stereotypes, math self-concepts) and feelings (math anxiety), as well as tests of mathematical achievement. Children, fathers, and mothers exhibited…

Research Findings: Current research regarding gender differences in educational settings at all socioeconomic levels suggests that young males are at high risk for developing academic, social, and emotional difficulties, resulting in increased disconnection from self and society. This study examined gender differences in the teacher-child…

Research Findings: The transition to school is a major developmental milestone, and behavior tendencies already evident at the point of school entry can impact upon a child's subsequent social and academic adjustment. The current study aimed to investigate stability and change in the social behavior of girls and boys across the transition from day…

Research Findings: The present longitudinal study investigated whether a range of social-emotional difficulties in early childhood predict the development of depressive symptoms in middle childhood. Participants were 56 children and their teachers. Teachers' reports of internalizing and externalizing behaviors were obtained during preschool, and…

The present study investigated 42 preschool children's ideas of what constitute "nice" behaviors on the part of their male and female peers, both at home and at school. Children were individually interviewed and asked to describe nice behaviors same-age peers do for others. A total of 285 distinct social behaviors were generated by the children…

Early development is likely influenced by quality of early parenting and improvements or declines in quality over time. Little is known about how changes in different dimensions of parenting influence child outcomes, nor the relative sizes of associations when considering several aspects simultaneously. These questions are addressed in the Early…

Assessed changes over time in kindergarten children's school attitudes and perceptions of peer acceptance and friendships. Found that initial levels of peer group acceptance were associated with liking school at both assessments, while the number of mutual friendships was associated with an increase in school liking. Girls who developed…